Towards recognition of control variables for an exoskeleton

In this paper we present a methodology to drive the end effector of a robotic manipulator, to which is attached a human hand, in order to follow the human´s intention of movement. This set-up is inspired from a neuro-robotics scenario in order to develop systems for restoring motor functionalities in injured and disabled people. Three typical tasks are considered, namely the robot not to interfere with the human´s motion, to assist a person with limited motion capabilities, and finally to be used from the subjects for rehabilitation reasons. The proposed controllers utilize a force control in two different ways, with inner position loop and with inner velocity loop. The derived controllers attempt to incorporate neuro-scientific models results. Also, stability and robust analysis is presented. The properties of the proposed methodology are verified through non-trivial computer simulations